The Black Box

22

I rush into my closet and put on my clothes and swords. I flip the switch and everyone's still here.

"Man you look cool," says Jax, standing up.

"Thanks," I say, acting cool by pulling jacket down and looking at something in the distance.

"These real?" asks Kevin, about to touch one of my daggers but I slap his hand away.

"Yeah."

"You don't have to slap me away," he says, rubbing his hand I slapped.

"Oh, Peter. Some girl wanted to see you. She went towards that ravine over there," Annabeth says, pointing towards the ravine.

Aww man. Christie probably came by, asked my friends where I was, and ran off to her house to see if I was there. Just then I see a figure moving towards the granite hill. It's probably Christie looking for me.

I hear footsteps coming up the granite hill and Christie emerges a second later. She dusts herself off and looks confused. I guess she's putting the puzzle pieces together that I'm friends with these strangers.

She walks up to me and whispers to me, "Who are they?"

"They're my friends," I whisper back.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Strange."

"Why?"

"Navi will tell you," she says, pulling away from my ear. She looks partially stunned but you can't really see it, unless you've been with her for sometime, like me, but not really.

She clears her throat and looks strict and apprehensive like when she met me.
"Hello. I am Christie Barbados and you should come with me unless you want to be killed." She motions to my friends and runs down the rock before anyone can blink.

We, I meant my friends, race after her. They don't know that she'll be out of sight. I pass my friends easily and wait for them at the bottom.

Adam and Jax make it down first. Sophie makes it next. Annabeth makes the smartest trail down the hill, and Kevin gets down while wasting tons of time.
"C'mon guys! Christie's probably halfway to the first already!" I say, running in the direction of the forest with my tiresome friends behind me.

"Can. We. Take. A. Breather?" asks Kevin.

He's fit but not used to long distance running.

"No time for breathers!" I yell back at him.

We are almost to the forest and I can just see Christie on the edge of the mutant tree forest. I check behind me and my friends are a little ways behind me but not too far away that they can't see me.

I run up next to Christie. "Hey, what happened when I left?"

"Oh, nothing really. Noah told Navi, Jess, and I what was going on," she answers.

"What is going on?"

"Oh. The Alliance is going to attack soon from The Break and their allies are coming too."

"Shouldn't 'The Alliance' be allied with us? 'Cause of the name?"

"The Alliance is a group of people who despise our group of people, Ashes. We despise them also."

"Ashes?"

"Named after our way of killing them. You'll see it soon. Here come your friends. Do you run often with them?"

"Yeah."

I've noticed that Christie has become easier to talk to and be around. She doesn't talk like she did when I met her.

"Hey, do we have to run anymore?" asks Kevin, panting.

He must be exhausted. Sophie looks like she has the energy to run again. She hasn't really talked since we've come here. I guess that's her way of being afraid or curious.

"Yes, we do. We have to run, in your measurements, 200 yards. More or less," says Christie.

"Aw man!" say Kevin.

"C'mon Kevin! You can do this," I tell him.

Christie looks around at our group and starts to jog ahead. I follow her and make sure that my friends are too. Everybody looks fine besides Kevin.

We approach the tree and Christie runs to the left and then stops in front of the boulders.

"Why are we here?" asks Adam looking at the trees.

He's actually now used to the darkness and this dimension, or future Earth.

"You'll see, Adam," Christie says.

Adam has a shocked expression 'cause he hasn't told her his name yet.

"How do you know my name?" asks Adam.

"I just do," answers Christie, reaching into her pocket, getting out the object to open the door. I didn't get a chance to see it.

She goes to the side of the pile of rocks and inserts the object into the hole. She steps back and the boulder becomes transparent.

"Woah," says Annabeth, clearly amazed.

"That's so cool!" says Jax, excited.

"Follow me," Christie says as she walks down the dimly lit hallway. She knocks on the other end.

1-3-8-5-2.

"Brace yourselves," I tell my friends as we huddle near the end of the hallway.

We free fall through the 30 feet of air and hit the ground. I land on my feet this time but most of my friends don't. Annabeth's standing up, holding her left elbow. Kevin and Adam are sprawled on the ground, groaning. Jax and Sophie are helping each other up. I see that Sophie has some scratches on her knees. Jax has a red spot on his face, probably a bruise.

Christie motions us forward and we follow.